A University of Colorado professor and her biomedical spin-off company are teaming with a Lafayette veterinarian in deploying a new gene therapy targeting chronic pain in dogs, with the hope that it might someday be applicable to humans.

Linda Watkins, a distinguished professor in CU’s psychology department and the Center for Neuroscience, said the study involves treating ailing dogs with a gene therapy using Interleukin-10, or IL-10, a protein and anti-inflammatory that both dogs and humans produce naturally.

Watkins is joining in her work with Dr. Robert Landry of Mountain Ridge Animal Hospital and Pain Management Center in Lafayette, who will be treating dogs that are suffering from chronic and painful conditions, and are not responding significantly to other medications.

Landry, one of the state’s very few credentialed American Academy of Pain Management practitioners in Colorado, said animals experience levels of pain that are similar to humans, and that chronic pain can even shorten the lives of pets. He is seeking local dog owners whose pets suffer chronic pain, and would like to have their dogs participate in the study, which they can do at no cost.

“We’re looking at dogs that can’t eat, that can’t go up or down a ramp, that can’t really function any more because of the debilitating pain that they’re feeling,” Landry said.

Two dogs so far have been treated using the experimental therapy to date, Landry said. Both showed positive results.

“They’re more playful, they can get down, they can go up a ramp. There is no placebo effect in dogs. The treatment is either going to be functionally effective, or not.”

The study builds on research spearheaded by Watkins and centered on what are known as glial cells found in the nervous system of mammals, which have a key role in communicating pain.

Under normal conditions, glial cells act as central nervous system “housekeepers,” cleaning up cellular debris and providing support for neurons, according to Watkins. Glial cells, however, also can play a pivotal role in pain enhancement by exciting neurons that both transmit pain signals and release a host of chemical compounds that trigger problems such as chronic neuropathic pain and other medical issues.

Landry used a different analogy, likening glial cells to a “volume switch” that can be manipulated to give seriously ailing dogs greater comfort.

“We want to lower the volume; we want to lower the magnitude of their discomfort, so that they can have more function, and an improved quality of life,” Landry said.

Watkins and her biomedical spin-off company Xalud Therapeutics Inc. of San Francisco, together with Landry, are using Xalud’s lead product candidate, XT-101, a gene therapy that harnesses IL-10 to normalize glial activity and stop neuropathic pain. Relief can last for as long as 90 days, with just one injection.

According to Watkins, the gene therapy based on IL-10 has a number of advantages, including suppressing glial activity in the spinal cord, stimulating tissue regeneration and growth, decreasing the production of pro-inflammatory substances and increasing the production of anti-inflammatory substances.

Watkins and Landry are working with the American Kennel Club on securing possible funding for further clinical studies involving the treatment of chronic pain in dogs.

Positive results seen so far in limited application of the therapy to dogs follows similar success that has been achieved in use on lab rats. The goal, should Watkins and Landry continue to see positive results, is to eventually move up the food chain.

“Our ultimate goal is to find a means by which clinical pain control can be improved so as to relieve human suffering,” Watkins said in a prepared statement.

Watkins in January received CU’s Inventor of the Year award for the Boulder campus, for developing new drugs and new uses for known drugs in targeting disorders with unmet medical needs, such as chronic and neuropathic pain, ALS, multiple sclerosis and addiction.

Take part

Those wishing to contact Dr. Robert Landry about having their dog that is suffering chronic pain take part in the study, and potentially benefit from the experimental treatment, can call the Mountain Ridge Animal Hospital at 303-665-4852.